November 27-29, 2018

The OECD held its 2018 Green Growth and Sustainable Development (GGSD) Forum on the theme of “Inclusive solutions for the green transition: Competitiveness, jobs/skills and social dimensions”.

It was held in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP), global partnership established by the OECD, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), UN Environment and the World Bank.

The conference addressed the political economy of green and low-carbon policy reforms, identified their distributional impacts, and explored inclusive solutions for households, workers, sectors and regions that may otherwise be hit hard by the transition to help them contribute to a greener future.

The Forum sessions were developed around competitiveness, employment and distributional impacts of green policies.

Context

Global momentum toward sustainable development has been renewed by the success of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and Paris Agreement on climate change. The latest findings by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that current efforts to tackle rising temperatures are dangerously off track, while a growing body of evidence shows that accelerating climate action can bring strong, sustainable and inclusive growth. OECD work indicates that if we combine growth enhancing policies and climate action, global GDP in 2050 could be nearly 5% higher from boost in investment and avoided climate damage. Recent work by New Climate Economy and ILO suggest that bold climate action could yield direct economic gains.

Background

While many countries are striving to advance on the green transition, political priorities have placed inequality, living standards and the fate of ‘left-behind’ communities at the top of the global agenda. While macro average figures point to a positive growth story of an innovative green future, averages mask the fact that there are pockets of society and regions that face real or perceived negative impacts on competitiveness, jobs and household budgets. Countries and regions need to proactively address such concerns and devise more socially inclusive solutions in order to accelerate the transition to a greener, low-carbon and circular economy. How can a well-managed green transition become a strong driver for job creation, competitiveness and more inclusiveness?

Why a forum on the green transition?

The Forum is aimed at creating a new narrative around green growth and national competitiveness, and examining examples of “transition management strategies” towards green and inclusive growth. It will consist of panel discussions among policy makers, business, labour and civil society representatives and academia, as well as presentations of latest research and evidence base contributed by the OECD, other GGKP partners and beyond.